Two years ago Klags gifted me a used pair of the Little Presents Wet Gaiters.
Pretty neat. they offer some nice insulation and knee protection for wet wading.
They also provide some protection of your clothing or waders, both on the river and in transit.
The gaiters got me thinking about knee protectionand I decided to pull the trigger on some knee pads. I decided to go with a sailing pad as I figured they might be the best direction considering they are also exposed to water and in most cases salt water. Anything that can survive the salt water environment…is a pretty robust product.
so I bought these…for about $45 on amazon. I bought the large to fit over my wading pants.
They are pretty awesome. They offer more comfort than the gaiters. they are very Lightweight. They do not slip around much even over waders.
I thought I would post it up as they are a very accessible alternative to the Little Presents Wet Gaiters.
The only negative is that they are a tube so they need to slide on. This is a mild inconvenience . Once on there are little velcro tabs to tighten them into position.
I will have to look into these if my cheap dollar tree knee pads don’t work out. The use a Velcro strap and costs only a dollar but who knows how durable they are.
I would bet that they are plenty durable. Outside of fishing I use knee pads a bit on during my home renovations. The biggest issue with most knee pads is that they tend to slip around and lack comfort. Durability is never much of an issue.
All in all… most of the time on the stream I do not use them. There are certain locations that I use them more. Like on streams with a lot of larger boulders, or streams that require some stealth.
Spending 45 bucks on knee pads that may not get a ton of use is frivolous. I bought them mostly to protect the knees of my waders and to use at some specific locations.
In poking around in some of the sailing gear I noticed some pants have built in pockets for knee pads. I think there are some military tactical pants that does the same. Slide in a foam pad. For ultimate comfort, one could break out the sewing machine and make a custom pair using their favorite camping pants.
There are military pants that have slide in knee pads. The pattern is the grayish style color called the DCU’s and worn by the U.S. Army. I know because I spent 20 years in the Army. I wish I had some left but got rid of it all after getting out in 2009 but some military surplus stores should have them. There not the green camos but the grey camos. If your around a military posts there easy to find, I live near FT. Campbell and there everywhere. If you would like, I could check out some of the prices and let you know. Most are pretty cheap I assume since the Army went to a different color scheme for their camo pattern.
